Mind Body Excellence Blog

Do you find that trying to read food labels can be very confusion and frustrating? If you do, your not alone. 

Most people have no idea  how many calories of fat they consume each day. The next time you go food shopping you’ll be able to calculate how many fat calories are in the foods you buy. 

Are you ready to start decreasing your fat intake?  Great!!

 To make things extremely easy for you, make sure you bring a calculator with you.

Let’s say you are looking at a food label on a box of cookies, look for the amount of calories per serving. ie. 150 calories per serving. now look for the number of calories from fat. Fat contains 9 calories per gram (2 grams would equal 18 calories)

So, if you have 5 grams of fat multiply that by 9.   9 x 5 = 45 (fat calories) Then divide 45 by the total number of calories 150 per serving and multiply the answer by 100.

Here’s how it looks.    150 calories per serving

                                           5 grams of fat = 9 calories    9 x 5 = 45  fat calories

                                            45 divided by 150 = 0.3

                                      100 x 0.3 = 30% caloriies from fat

You want to try and avoid or conume as little as possible foods that say hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated on the food label.

Have a busy schedule? Looking for a short workout that’s  guaranteed to get the heart pumping faster and the muscles working harder?   Try this 10 minute program.

1. March in place for 1 minute

2. Do some light stretching for 1 minute

3. Do the following routine for 6 minutes. Do each exercise, one right after the other for 6 minutes straight (No resting for the six minutes) 15-Jumping Jacks - 10-Standing abdominal twists (each side), and finish with 10-pushups with the knees off the floor (military style). Repeat the exercises until the six minutes are up. Once the six minutes are up, stop no matter where you are in the program. The key is to keep moving for the entire six minutes

 4. Finish with a cool down and some light stretching. This should last for 2 minutes.

 A great workout in just 10 minutes.

If you’re unable to do regular jumping jacks, try these. Kick the legs out in front of you and as you do this bring your hands overhead just like you would in a regular jumping jack.

Standing abdominal twists. Stand with your feet placed shoulder width apart. Turn your right foot slightly out. Extend your arms out in front of you with elbows bent and make a fist with both hands. Now raise your left knee up  high  and at the same time twist your upper body to the left. This counts as one movement or one rep. After completing 10 reps on the left side, turn the left foot out slightly, raise theright knee high and twist the upper body to the right for 10 reps.  If you’re not strong enough to do the pushups with your knees off the floor, don’t worry about it. Do the pushups with your knees on the floor.  And if these are to hard, do wall pushups.  Stand a few inches away from a wall, place your hands flat on the wall with arms extended. Now, lower your body towards the wall and push back up to the starting position. Choose the one that’s right for you.

Proper breathing technique. It’s very important that you focus on your breathing when you exercise. On the exertion phase of the exercise you want to exhale and on the relaxation phase you want to inhale.  When doing the abdominal twists, exchale as you lift the knee up and twist to the side. When you do a pushup, exhale as you push the body up away from the floor or wall.

 Intensity. If you’re looking to challange yourself, hold a medicine ball, a dumbbell or even a telephone book in your hands when doing the abdominal twists. For regular jumping jacks, you can bring the legs forward and back instead of out to the side. 

Modify the routine to fit your fitness level. Have fun with it and let me know what you think. 

 Always get approval from your physician before starting any fitness program.

 Stay fit and be well,

-Frank

P.S.  Don’t foget to check out my new audio/video book for the business traveler. Makes a great gift for a loved one or co-worker. Buy it today!